Cold Soup Can Enhance Your Health

February 13, 2017
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Story at-a-glance

Cold soup, usually containing raw ingredients, can offer even more nutrition than hot soup because the cooking process doesn’t destroy the vitamins and minerals

Adding spices such as cinnamon can help stabilize blood sugar levels, and turmeric, ginger and garlic can lower inflammation

Raw vegetables, fruits and herbs are high in antioxidants, which fight free radicals produced in response to environmental toxins

Blending ingredients such as raw spinach and ginger breaks down tough cell membranes so your system can make immediate use of them

By Dr. Mercola

If you live in much of the U.S., a warm bowl of soup is wonderfully warming and heartening in the chilly months of fall and winter, but when spring and summer arrive, something lighter and cooler seems much more appealing.

Cold soups (usually) incorporate raw vegetables that can be diced or otherwise put together using a blender or food processor without heating your stovetop, oven or kitchen. It's one of the most nutritious and convenient aspects of cold soup; these modern contraptions render produce the ultimate "fast food."

Soups of any temperature are a nutritious way of preparing vegetables because the entire essence is consumed rather than being boiled away or drained as is often done with other methods of food preparation.

Avocado, ground almonds and yogurt work well as a stand-in for stocks or broth — meat isn't always a prerequisite — adding body, flavor and nutrition. Other popular ingredients include watermelon, mint, cashews and cucumber.

Blending up your favorite combo may even change the way you set your table during the dog days of summer.

All About That Spice: Can Spices Help You Lose Weight?

Plant-based foods are very healthy for you, and when they're raw, they're (usually) most nutritious. The same goes for fruits, spices, herbs and nuts, most of which fall into the "plant-based" category. Other than the natural juices in these soups, there's also a vital ingredient: water, the original appetite suppressant.

Each one has a unique set of attributes, both flavor-wise and nutritionally. Combinations can bring unique flavors you may never have thought of combining, such as onions sautéed with Granny Smith apples, but spices work even harder; a little can go a long way for more than just your taste buds.

Certified nutrition specialist and Nutrition Diva1 Monica Reinagel wrote about a friend of hers who claimed to have lost amazing amounts of weight after starting a new diet based on spices, namely cumin, turmeric, coriander, cinnamon, black pepper and cayenne, to flush toxins and speed up metabolism.

While it's true that cinnamon is known for stabilizing blood sugar levels, and turmeric, ginger and garlic can lower inflammation, the claim that these spices melt pounds in this way is not quite accurate, Reinagel says.

In reality, as tasty as they may be, adding spices to your meals alone will probably not trigger dramatic weight loss.2 That being said, it certainly can't hurt, either.

For instance, capsaicin, the compound that gives cayenne pepper its heat, may help fight obesity by decreasing calorie intake, shrinking fat tissue and lowering blood fat levels, as well as fight fat buildup by triggering beneficial protein changes in your body.3

Black pepper, meanwhile, contains a substance called piperine, which not only gives it its pungent flavor, but also blocks the formation of new fat cells.4

Ginger is another good choice, as it has thermogenic properties that help boost your metabolism, as well as has an appetite-suppressant effect when consumed, suggesting a "potential role of ginger in weight management."5

Antioxidants: Necessary for Health

Raw, plant-based foods are high in antioxidants, but while it may seem surprising, "more" antioxidants aren't actually beneficial after a point. It's even possible to get too many antioxidants, Reinagel asserts, although she believes that's usually in regard to supplements rather than spices.

The root word in "antioxidants" is oxygen, but there's also the "anti" part; you can't survive without oxygen, but too much damages your cells and causes early aging throughout your system very similar to the way an apple slice turns brown from exposure to air.

Exposure to environmental toxins such as household cleaners, cigarette smoke and radiation leads to the production of harmful oxidative molecules called free radicals in your body. Free radicals are also formed with energy production caused by exercise, metabolism and even inflammation.

A free radical is a highly reactive metabolite, produced during metabolism, but missing one or more electrons. That missing electron is what kick-starts biological oxidation, which can attack other molecules to forage for missing electrons.

Once stolen, that electron morphs into a new free radical, which continues to attack other molecules.

That's why free radicals are so insidious: They damage your cells and DNA, and worse, tend to gather in cell membranes, compromising the lipids in cell membranes. Oxidized cell membranes become perforated, brittle and useless.

Antioxidants are molecules that can prevent another molecule from oxidizing by giving up their own electrons to feed free radicals without becoming free radicals themselves.

Antioxidant nutrients in your body also produce enzymes that further protect from free radicals, but this ability declines as you age. Daily exposure to damaging substances in the air you breathe and foods you eat contributes to oxidative stress, which occurs when free radicals outnumber your natural antioxidants.

Whether you like soups that are smooth and silky or thick and chunky, you'll be inspired by the following five cool recipes, incorporating sensational and mouthwatering ingredient combinations, plus a hearty dose of antioxidants in every refreshing bowl. Choose organic ingredients whenever possible.

5 Tasty and Nutritious Cold Soup Recipes

1. Tangy Green Zebra Gazpacho

This soup introduces a unique tomato variety for a tangier flavor. It can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container for overnight refrigeration.

In a blender, blend half of the coarsely chopped green tomatoes, cucumber and onion with all of the avocado, jalapeno, garlic and lime juice, plus 1 cup of cold water. Purée until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl.

Add the rest of the coarsely chopped veggies to the blender with the mint, cilantro and olive oil and pulse to a chunky puree. Add the mixture to the bowl and stir well.

Refrigerate for at least an hour. Season before serving, ladle into bowls, garnish with the veggies and herbs and drizzle with olive oil.

Deliciously fresh and lemony, creamy cold beet borscht may seem time intensive because of the beet-cooking process, but here's an easy method: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Wash and trim the beets, leaving the root and 2 inches of stem intact to prevent them from bleeding.

Lightly oil and wrap the beets in foil and place them on a baking sheet to oven roast. Cook until easily pierced with a sharp knife (or boil them in water for about 30 minutes). Remove the beets from the oven, cool for 10 minutes, then peel.

Ingredients

5 medium-sized, cooked beets, cooled and coarsely chopped

12 oz. organic chicken or vegetable stock

Zest and juice of one lemon

4 Tbsp. chopped fresh dill weed

1/2 tsp. each Dr. Mercola's sea salt and black pepper

6 scallions, chopped

2 cups organic raw sour cream or plain raw grass-fed yogurt, or one cup of each

Additional sour cream and chopped chives for garnish

Procedure

Place the beets and the stock in a food processor and whir until slightly chunky.

Add the lemon zest, dill, salt and pepper and scallions. Blend until smooth. Pour into the large bowl.

Thoroughly blend in the combination of sour cream or yogurt you'd like and chill until very cold.

Serve in chilled bowls with dollops of sour cream or yogurt and a sprinkling of dill.

While sorrel is a green with both culinary and medicinal history, it's not often available in stores other than farmers markets. You can grow it in abundance, though. Its tart, faintly lemony flavor profile is due in part to oxalic acid, which some consider unsafe, but only in profuse amounts (as anything can be if you ingest too much). Besides being beautifully cool and creamy, this soup is also exceptionally healthy for you.

Ingredients

1 cup raw cashews

3 1/2 cups of filtered water

1 bunch sorrel (about 1 1/2 cups, chopped)

1 avocado, roughly chopped

Juice and zest from 1/2 lemon

1/2 tsp. each of white pepper and Dr. Mercola's sea salt

Procedure

Place the cashews in a bowl and cover them with the water (which you'll save). Refrigerate at least two hours or overnight.

Pour the cashews and the water into a food processor and blend until very smooth (be patient). Leave it as it is, or for a silkier consistency, strain the cashew mixture in a mesh strainer.

Add the sorrel, avocado, lemon juice, zest, salt and pepper to the cashew mixture and blend until smooth. Chill thoroughly before serving, and serve with a tiny bunch of chiffonade-sliced sorrel as a garnish.

The word is not the thing, so if you'd prefer, you can call this cold soup "dessert." Either way, it's flavorful, delectable and filling. Nothing in this soup is ever cooked, which adds to the cooling sensation when you taste the first delicious spoonful. It's even tastier on the second day.

With more lycopene than raw tomatoes, you wouldn't think of watermelon soup as hearty or filling, but this is! It's also an example of a soup that can be efficiently mixed using a hand-held immersion blender. Remember, too, that watermelon should be enjoyed in moderation due to its fructose content. One-sixteenth of a medium watermelon contains 11.3 grams of fructose.

Tips, Tricks and More Cold Soup Recipes

One more awesome thing about making summer soups is that you can easily find a recipe incorporating bumper crops, from peaches to squash to snap peas. You can also toss in ingredients from your fridge or cupboard that you want to use up, such as sour cream, yogurt and almond or coconut milk. Top with a mound of sprouts for an attractive and nutritious garnish. Want more healthy and delicious cold soup recipes?

Blending your greens in Blended Green Soup12 (rather than processing the living daylights out of them) breaks down the tough cell membranes so your system can make immediate use of them.

Zucchini, tomatoes, basil, bell peppers and other veggies from your garden, with a twist of savory sweetness from one or two dates and a bit of miso, make Raw Summer Vegetable Soup13 complex and delectable.

Cashew butter, carrots, onions and fresh ginger are all it takes to make Raw Loulou's Carrot Orange and Ginger Soup,15 either cold or room temperature.

Try this cool trick for a day trip to the beach: When your puréed pot of soup is super cold, fill several short Mason jars for individual servings to hand out when lunch time rolls around. Also, pour some soup into ice cube trays, freeze and take those along. When someone asks for seconds, just spoon a few cubes into their jar. Super cool!